Page 41 of Prodigal

With Ennis’s blood in his veins and his…attraction to Gideon, he was well and truly in it. And he wanted out. It was the only way to protect himself. To protect Jules.

The sound of the medical unit’s door opening caught his attention and he looked up as Gideon stepped out. André shot to his feet, hurrying over to him.

“How is he?” Those words weren’t supposed to make it to his lips. They should have stayed in his head. But he couldn’t retract them.

Gideon rubbed his forehead. He looked…stressed. Expression heavy, mouth set in a grim line. “They managed to stabilize him, but he still needs to be monitored closely.” He inhaled, then released it, chest and shoulders rising and falling with the motion. “If he makes it through the night, then the doctors are optimistic that he’ll pull through.”

André gulped.

“This one has something he wants to tell you.” Samir nodded in André’s direction, then took off, moving away to give them whatever privacy they could have with armed men all around.

Gideon turned questioning eyes to André. “What is it?”

Looking at him, being so close to him, it took time and effort for the words to make their way to André’s lips, to spill out. “It’s time for Jules and I to leave. We’re grateful for your hospitality but we gotta go.” He folded his arms, body tense as he waited.

Gideon stared at him, a muscle ticking at his left temple. André wanted to break away from that intense scrutiny, from the shock that darkened Gideon’s eyes before it disappeared. Before all expression on Gideon’s face was wiped away. He pressed his lips together and then gave a sharp nod. “Samir, have someone escort André and Jules wherever they want to go.” Then he turned away, striding purposefully back into the med unit.

André blinked.What just happened?He’d expected a fight, an argument, for Gideon to try and get him to change his mind. He hadn’t expected immediate capitulation. He stood rooted to the spot, staring at the door as if Gideon would magically reappear.

Samir came up to him. “You look disappointed.” He chuckled, but it held no true mirth. “You expected him to beg you to stay?”

André’s mouth opened but nothing came out. He kinda did.

“If I’m correct, he asked you for a chance,” Samir continued. “But your leaving is your answer, isn’t it? You gave up on him, sohe’s returning the same energy to you.” He thumped André on the back. Hard. “You made your choice. Now, let’s go.”

Everything Samir said was correct, but it didn’t help the acidic feeling of loss that bloomed in André’s gut. He should be happy. Wasn’t this what he wanted? He’d gotten it. There was nothing left to do but follow Samir to the elevator.

So André did.

Gideon stared out the window,seeing nothing.

It’d been a week since André and his sister left the penthouse, and he honestly didn’t know how he’d made it that long without storming over to André’s place and dragging them back.

Everything in him wanted to do that, but he didn’t. André didn’t want to stay. Gideon couldn’t keep him trapped. Well, he could, but he didn’t want to. Though the ideadidflash in his mind for a second when André told him he was leaving.

Gideon hadn’t said goodbye. He’d walked away from André then and hadn’t looked back, hadn’t done shit until Samir told him their guests were gone. They had bodyguards with them because Gideon wasn’t a complete fool, despite the way he felt about André. His men had escorted André and Jules home but they hadn’t left. Gideon ensured they stayed put. Some were positioned in an empty apartment two doors down from André’s, and even more were outside, guarding the building. He’d told them to keep to the shadows, to make sure André and Jules didn’t notice them, but to never leave the two unattended. So Gideon’s men dogged their every step.

He’d received daily reports until it had gotten to be too much, then he had the men report to Samir, who would only involve Gideon if there was an issue.

Nothing had changed for him with André’s departure. It only solidified the knowledge that Gideon had to deviate from the plans he’d made with his father. An unconscious Ennis Canto was recovering downstairs in their medical unit.

That for fucking sure was a deviation from the plan.

Gideon should have put a bullet in the fucker’s head, finishing what whoever tried to kill Ennis had started. But he hadn’t. Partly because he wanted to know who’d done it. And partly because of André and that look in his eyes when he’d gotten his first glimpse of his unconscious father hooked up to the machines keeping him alive.

Gideon had pretended it didn’t gut him, watching André’s face. The idea that he could also someday soon be the reason for that pain in André’s eyes? He could no longer justify it.

Not to himself. Not to his old man. Not to his mother.

He couldn’t hurt André.

So where the fuck did that leave him?

What happened next? And would he ever get the chance to tell André that things had changed, thathehad changed?

A knock came on his office door and he spun around just as it opened. Samir stepped in, narrowed eyes assessing before he said, “You canceled the meeting?”

Gideon was supposed to be meeting with business associates, but he’d put it off. He shrugged, looking away from the disapproval in Samir’s eyes. “It can wait.”

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